A man asked for 'something edible' for Christmas. His sister's gift was... unexpected.

If your sibling isn’t manipulating your words so they can laugh at your expense, how do you even know you have a sister?

This is something every person who has a sister knows to be true – except one very innocent man who discovered it the hard way this Christmas. In a Mumsnet thread called ‘If asked for something edible for Christmas, what would you take that to mean?‘ (a clear sign the thread would be hilarious), user ‘AGHHHH’ asked the forum if he’s being unreasonable about his sister’s interpretation of his request.

“Would you think I meant chocolate, biscuits or a hamper or something?” he asked. “Or a few own brand tins of Lidl baked beans and spaghetti loops etc…”

The latter being exactly what his sister gifted her. Which, in the sister’s defence, is a perfectly legitimate adherence to the gift directive. But AGHHHH didn’t see it that way.

“I prefer to give and never expect anything but she asked what I wanted so I just said don’t worry about getting anything big,” he wrote magnanimously, adding he also suggested, “just something edible will be fine.”

But hindsight is a wonderful thing and AGHHH realised, saying he should have been more specific (ya think?), but never expected his sister to go so rogue.

“A box of Maltesers would have felt more Christmassy than tins of baked beans… It’s the only thing I had to open and it was a bit of a sh*t day anyway.”

The first response on the thread expressed our initial thoughts:

"Wtf? I’m sorry but this did make me chuckle is your sis on glue? Who buys someone beans for Xmas? Weird behaviour it was obvious something like biscuits/chocolate was what you meant."

Obvious, perhaps to that commenter - but not to AGHHHH's sister.

Or, was it?

Were the tinned baked beans just an act of trolling from a sister to a brother? The very real/most definite possibility of the gift being a joke was floated by a number of commenters in the thread... and confirmed by the following detail the man shared later:

"All my family were laughing about it while I stood there like... I wish, it would have been funny then! But it was serious."

Yes, AGHHHH, it was serious...ly a joke.

Other forum users made helpful suggestions such as "Is your sister very literal?" and "Did she maybe forget and just grab something from her cupboard?"

But nothing would ease the pain of AGHHHH's memory of being 100 percent Punk'd by his sister. That didn't seem to matter, though, as he did get the empathy he was seeking.

"I’d not expect store cupboard basics, that’s for sure. Posh/festive chocolate, chutney, biscuits etc, not the ingredients for beans on toast," one user commented helpfully.

"She may as well wrapped up a cabbage," another observed, offended on the man's behalf.

Knowing he had an audience who feels sorry for him, AGHHHH added in the thread, "A food bank parcel is exactly what it felt like."

Which sounds a little extreme, considering how many families gratefully received such parcels all over the world at Christmas. So, even if the gift wasn't a joke, it's certainly at least useful.

But then again, as one commenter pointed out, "She might have at least got you a loaf of bread so you could make toast to go with them."

What do you think of this gift? Tell us in the comments below.

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